Audit reveals unacceptable care for children with diabetes

Children with diabetes are failing to receive the right level of care needed to ensure their condition is properly managed, a new report has warned.
The report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) revealed that many children across the country still have poor diabetes care, with just 6.7% of children receiving all seven of the diabetes check-ups recommended by healthcare watchdog NICE to help detect and prevent long-term health complications.
While the number of children who have good control of their diabetes has improved (up from 14.5% to 17.4% between 2009/10 and 2011/12), 1 in 4 children still have “unacceptably” poor control over their condition, putting them at risk of developing major complications in later life.
Commenting on the figures, Dr. Justin Warner, RCPCH lead and a Consultant in Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, said: “It is heartening to see some improvement in numbers of children and young people with diabetes achieving excellent control of the disease.
“But it is also concerning that significant numbers of children still do not have access to a level of control that would reduce their risk of developing disease-associated complications long-term.
“With recent evidence suggesting that the incidence of Type 1 diabetes in children is rising and may double by 2020, getting the management of care right for every child is essential to ensure they have the best quality of life.”
Dr. Warner added that steps have been taken to improve diabetes care for kids in England. This includes the launch of the Best Practice Tariff, which he says will “enable centres providing paediatric diabetes care to enhance their resources and service delivery”.
The findings were from the RCPCH’s latest National Paediatric Diabetes Audit, which involved 25,199 children and young people with diabetes across England and Wales.